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Canadian Women’s Club of Chicago Newsletter
PRESIDENTS LETTER I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas. As always, one of the highlights for me is having our friends over for our annual soiree and gift exchange. It’s always a lot of fun and it keeps us in touch with our friends, many of them from my home province of Newfoundland. We draw names earlier in the year and have fun picking out just the right gift for the person whose name we have.
Mummering is a wonderful custom that came to Newfoundland around the 17th Century from England. It involved disguising your appearance by dressing up in old clothes and covering your face with just about anything from a scarf or a mask or, in Harry’s case, one of your kitchen sheers. People went from house to house knocking on doors, asking if “Any mummers ‘lowed in?” If the answer was yes, they would go in and entertain the home owners with music, (usually one of the mummers played an accordion or a fiddle) and always there was a lot of dancing and story-telling. Some hosts would offer a Christmas drink, however others would offer a glass of Purity syrup and some cake. The evening ended with the home owners trying to guess who the Mummers were and, if they guessed correctly, the Mummer would have to remove the disguise; if incorrect the disguise could remain.
It was a great night of fun and something that was a regular part of the 12 nights of Christmas. Of course with the issue of safety in more recent years, mummering is not quite as popular now as it was when I was younger, but I remember Mummers coming to our house and dancing and singing up a storm. It was most always a Christmas highlight.
Speaking of good times and friends gathering, we all had a great time at the CWC Christmas party and white elephant gift exchange in December, graciously hosted by (withheld). Her house was lovely, and her tree especially interesting with an array of outstanding ornaments. The gift exchange, as always, was lots of fun, with several fun Canadian items including the “singing moose”.
As we move into our golden anniversary year of 2010, we look forward to a number of great celebratory programs starting off with a pot-luck at Robin Allison’s in January.
My best wishes to you for a healthy and safe new year! - Paula
Newsletter Deadline The deadline for submitting articles to be included in the February newsletter is January 27th, 2010. All articles should be submitted to Jan Dengis. Please put CWC on the subject line. Any questions, please call Jan.
MEMBER NEWS Birthday wishes for January go to Suzanne Abate and Ena Grant on Jan 5th , Marianne Kohl Herman on Jan 15th, Joyce Enxing on Jan. 20th, and Robin Allison on Jan 24th.
It is with great sadness that we report the
passing of Bridget Gillen, a long time member of the Canadian Women's Club.
Bridget passed away on December 1st and interment was at All Saints Cemetery in
Des Plaines. You can view the obituary and guest book at:
http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/chicagotribune/obituary.aspx?page=lifestory&pid=136880615
Carol and Jim Taylor are happy to announce the birth of their first grandchild, Cooper James Deglomine, on November 29th. The baby was 6 lbs. 3oz., 19 ½ inches. Proud parents are Allison, nee Taylor, and Mark Deglomine of El Portal, California.
MARK YOUR CALENDAR
Canadian Event Calendar
CLUB NEWS
Book Club The next book selection is the novel, “THE BOOK OF NEGROES” by Canadian author Lawrence Hill. This book is also found under the alternate title of “SOMEONE KNOWS MY NAME.” The next book discussion will be held at 11:00am on March 10, 2010 at the home of Jan Dengis.
Looking Ahead On Saturday, February 13th, the meeting will be at Bev Paonessa’s party room. The programme will be “Self Defense for Women” presented by CWC member and Bev’s daughter, Anne Sullivan Scatchell.
On March 17th, the meeting will be held at the home of Barb Dickie. The programme will continue our travel through the decades with a salute to the 90’s – “La Fin de Siècle.”
On April 21st , the meeting will be held at the home of (withheld). The programme will be “The Amazing Monarch (butterfly, that is!)” by Diane Hunter.
50th Anniversary Party Fundraiser Raffle ticket sales started during the December meeting and will continue until the drawing date at the last meeting of the year. Included in the raffle is a watercolour painting from Mary Ellen's sister in law, Jean Pollack which will be grand prize, a $100 gift certificate from the Park Grill, two pictures from Shea Burgess, one picture from Anne Rizzolo and three small paintings from (withheld). Also included is a selection of Canadian wine courtesy of the Canadian Consulate. The 5th prize will be drawn first and the last ticket drawn will win the watercolour.
The price of the tickets is $5 each or 3 for $10.00. If you were not able to be at the December meeting, please plan on purchasing tickets at the next meeting you attend. Joan Ridyard, CWCC treasurer, is in charge of the ticket sales. To our snowbirds where ever you may be, you can purchase raffle tickets by sending Joan a cheque and she will return the ticket halves to you.
Our New Caterer A lot of you have had the opportunity to enjoy the tasty food at our monthly meetings. Our new caterer, Rachael Lickteig is available for outside catering and can be reached at rachael.lickteig@gmail.com or via phone at 312-617-8362.
Changes to the Canadian Club of Chicago
News from the Canadian Club of Chicago:
“In response to many suggestions and requests, the Board of Directors has been working to make the organization a more business oriented organization. To that end, it has proposed a new name and new mission of the organization. As reflected in the proposed Bylaws (http://www.canadianclubofchicago.org/information/Canadian_Business_Council_Bylaws.100104.pdf), the proposed name is the Canada-U.S. Business Council Chicago and the new mission is focused on promoting and encouraging bilateral trade between Canada and the United States. However, in order to do so, such action requires an amendment of the organization's Bylaws. In light of having to revise the Bylaws, the Board took this opportunity to review and revise the Bylaws in their entirety to ensure that they are relevant and up-to-date as the organization embarks on expanding and growing the organization.
There will be a meeting to vote on the proposed Bylaws on January 25th and we hope that you will be able to participate in that meeting. It will be held at the offices of Neal, Gerber & Eisenberg, LLP, located at 2 N. LaSalle Street, Suite 1700, commencing at 4:30 pm. We encourage you to join us for that vote on January 25th and to get involved with the many upcoming events in 2010.” |
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Copyright 2010 - Canadian Women's Club of Chicago Email: mail@cwcchicago.com |
This year I was surprised and delighted when I
opened up my gift from my friend Jeff to find “Harry from Harbour Deep” (photo
at left). Harry is a Mummer carved from basswood by two Newfoundland artists.
For all of you who don’t know what a Mummer or Mummering is, I thought it would
be fun to explain.
